Perl for System Administrators

This book is very uncanny in that it is able to cover advanced administration procedural concepts (such as log rotation) and networking technologies (like SNMP), and the automation that applies to these areas. The coverage is from a platform neutral perspective, but does delve into platform specific solutions where needed, e.g. Windows events vs. UNIX syslogs, Active Directory vs. LDAP, etc. What is nice is that these system or network administration chores, is that the coverage uses generic cross-platform libraries (Mozilla's LDAP modules for example), but where needed delves into platform specific libraries such as ADSI (for Active Directory LDAP OLE-DB provider). I highly recommend this book as supplementary material for existing scripting books and system administration books. I would note that the material is advanced and would be suited for those already familar with intermediate Perl programming (map, grep, array slicing, split, etc.) and advanced system administration and network administration concepts (or ability and eagerness to learn)

The biggest asset of this book is the author's expert knowledge of the three platforms (Unix, Windows NT/2000, Mac) and the in-depth coverage he gives to each. With almost every Perl sysadmin tool he covers, he outlines the OS-specific Perl modules necessary to make the tool work on any of the platforms. This book is truly unique in that regard.

Heck, i haven't even looked at the main part of this book, but the appendicies are priceless. A fifteen minute crash course on SQL? An 8 minute crash course on XML? Like treatment is given to RCS, LDAP, and SNMP. I've used this book for less than an hour of my life, and it's been a terriffic investment.

Perl For System Administration is designed for all levels of administrators, from novice single-box Linux users to seasoned SAGE members. While covering several different platforms including Unix, Windows NT, and Mac OS, Perl For System Administration also covers such core issues as filesystem management, user administration, directory services, database administration, log files, security, and network monitoring. Superbly written and presented, Perl For System Administration will enable the beginner to launch confidently into Perl for administrative tasks, and has much to offer even the more experienced manager.

I've been wondering what programming language I wanted to get involved with. At first I decided that it was going to be C since I could do a lot more stuff with it, or so I thought. I had been reading up on Perl and how it is basically the scripting language that ends all scripting languages. So I decided to get this book before actually getting a How-To Perl book to see if it was as usefull as I thought it might be. Oh yes, was it ever. Needless to say I promptly went and bought Learning Perl 2nd Edition from my favorite publisher O'Reilly and am about to dive into it. Highly recommended book for anyone who's not sure if they want to get into Perl or not.